Shakespeare

[Madiel]

I really doubt anyone is confused about that. I'm not and Jan Kott, despite what you might infer from the title of his book, is not. In fact I'm grateful to the section in his book on Midsummer Nights Dream where he explains the ingredients of folk potions mentioned in the play as they would have been immediately understood at that time, including those in the names of the faeries (including cobweb).

It wasn't the book that inspired my comment.

[hopefullytrusting]

This is one of the most important books when it comes to authorship, in general, but Shakespeare is the case study - it also has an entire chapter dedicated to Hamlet:



From the slug:

"The familiar versions of these plays were created through ongoing revision in the theater, a process that did not necessarily begin with Shakespeare's original manuscript or end when he died. An ascription by the company of any play to "Shakespeare" did not imply that it was following a fixed, authorial text; rather, Marino writes, it indicates an attempt to maintain exclusive control over a set of open-ended, theatrically revised scripts. Combining theater history, textual studies, and literary theory, Owning William Shakespeare rethinks both the way Shakespeare's plays were created and the way they came to be known as his. It overturns a century of scholarship aimed at re-creating the playwright's lost manuscripts, focusing instead on the way the plays continued to live and grow onstage."

[Madiel]

This is one of the most important books when it comes to authorship, in general, but Shakespeare is the case study - it also has an entire chapter dedicated to Hamlet:



From the slug:

"The familiar versions of these plays were created through ongoing revision in the theater, a process that did not necessarily begin with Shakespeare's original manuscript or end when he died. An ascription by the company of any play to "Shakespeare" did not imply that it was following a fixed, authorial text; rather, Marino writes, it indicates an attempt to maintain exclusive control over a set of open-ended, theatrically revised scripts. Combining theater history, textual studies, and literary theory, Owning William Shakespeare rethinks both the way Shakespeare's plays were created and the way they came to be known as his. It overturns a century of scholarship aimed at re-creating the playwright's lost manuscripts, focusing instead on the way the plays continued to live and grow onstage."

Hmm. Interesting, and to a fair extent true although the purpose of the First Folio fairly clearly was to provide definitive versions compared to other versions that had been published.

But it's the case with theatre in general that things will change in the course of a run, or in a later revival. I was reminded only last night about Mozart writing new arias for a later production of Figaro.